storäe michele (they/them)—a self-given name speaking to the sacred act of storytelling—is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, poet, playwright, theologian and seasoned educator.
their experimental films, performances, and choreopoems center black femmes, honoring their routes to authenticity— the reclamation of body, sexuality and personhood—which serve as reminders of how to create brave space as black queer wild & holy beings.
storäe returns to African diasporic folklore as a practice of story-weaving. by integrating archives of black folx, exploring ancestral accounts & documenting dreamworlds as transformative spells for healing, their art provides pathways toward future world-making.
their first film, [the listening heart], earned the Robert E. Seaver Award granted by Union Theological Seminary and has been officially selected byfilm festivals in Berlin, New York, Carbondale, Colorado and Cannes. their directorial debut was celebrated on the front cover of Women CineMakers, a digital magazine in Berlin.
storäe is a Lambda Literary Fellow (Playwrighting Cohort, 2021) and their choreopoem, mama [rose], was nominated for the 2022 LGBTQ Drama Lammy Award. storäe is a fellow for the 2023 Baldwin for the Arts Residencyand the 2023 Greenhouse Residency (SPACE on Ryder Farm). storäe is also New York Stage and Film’s 2024 Founders’ Award Recipient.
storäe recently collaborated in an on-site gallery installation and exhibit titled, because you’re [mine.] (2024), which nuances self-possession and ritual practice in the mundane. their upcoming performance piece [claustrophobia], is supported by Columbia University’s Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics & Social Justice as a Rapid Response grant recipient .
storäe has a Master of Professional Studies graduate in Creative Arts Therapy & Creativity Development, Pratt Institute (2008), also holds an Interdisciplinary Master of Divinity graduate of Union Theological Seminary (2017), and has earned a Master of Fine Arts in Performance & Performance Studies at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY (2021).
Please note, when I say femme, I am speaking to trans, cis-, queer, het-, non-binary energies, practices, materialities.
photography by Anne Hoilman.
storäe michele is a black queer, shape-shifting, non-binary femme who writes in their native tongue, poetry.
you can hear their words dance along the page in a rhythm that reunites their truth from the spaces that fade in-between.
you may also hear their prayers, tears & song reverberate through rapid fire loops, cyclical gestures, echo chambers & war cries of love.
but, are you listening?
storäe’s creative practice integrates intergenerational healing and flourishing of black femmes with a turn to intuitive, communal, informal, and speculative methods. they engage these strategies as tools towards building a present and embodied archive for black femme futures, enacting a process they name “a practice in black femme freedom-making.”
their art is in dialogue with black feminist philosophers, activists, and African disaporic folk & futurist writers, with whom they co-create blueprints for navigating black life and livelihood despite living in a state of perpetual and persistent precariousness, and yet: coping, surviving, and thriving.
storäe centers these subversive narratives as methods for divesting from flat images and caricatures, evoking rituals of self- love, cultivating accountability within community, and learning from black queer feminists who envision worlds beyond white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.
photography by Anne Hoilman + Elyse Ambrose.
mama [rose.], an original choreopoem & one person performance.
written, directed & performed by storäe michele, 2021.
storäe’s recent project, mama [rose.], is an afro-futurist queer, circular time-traveling film following the stories of a non-binary teen, Sid, their trans archaeologist grandmother, Mama Rose, and their shared journey toward mending intergenerational wounds.
in part auto-ethnographic, this piece incorporates family history (including secrets around mental health, illnesses, sexuality, and abuse) as retold by their 97-year-old grandmother.
the following are experimental archives as meditations—excerpts from mama [rose.]
1. ceiling | sky: a meditation, archive #293, written & performed by storäe michele. filmed by Elyse Ambrose .
2. a practice in freedom-making, #28. , written & performed by storäe michele. filmed by Elyse Ambrose, song performed by Be Steadwell.
3. planets and stardust, archive #716. , written & performed by storäe michele. filmed by Elyse Ambrose.
[the listening heart], an original choreopoem.
written & directed by storäe michele, 2017.
[the listening heart] is an Afro-Native, futuristic film about self-love and deep listening. this narrative is grounded in Mayan and Yoruba cosmologies, performed by a cast of black femmes.
this film is also a choreopoem which uplifts the feminine divine. it investigates the ways we communicate the meanings of love through the embodiment of poetry, song, and dance.
our protagonist, Ix Chel, is a child healer who searches for the meaning of love— a concept originating from collaborative conversations with Edyka Chilomé.
here, Ix Chel/Grandmother Moon is [re]indigenized as a healer connected to Mama Earth, midwife of safe passage, and keeper of medicine.
this story follows a common paradigm of femmes who are hurt or dis-empowered when going against social norms, but, in this film, reclaim space through truth-telling by deconstructing mistruths about love through intergenerational folx-talk.
this film features: Jadele McPherson, Shantez Tolbut, Jaguar Mary X, Kevonnie Shelton, Cocoa Sarai, Jaye Watts, Alexandria Johnson, Esperanza Lin, Medina Ouida, Kay Lowry, Tamara Dumay Murad, Jessica Peñaranda and Jazmin Peralta--artists, performers, entrepreneurs, mothers, activists, singers, songwriters, dancers, poets, & educators.
avant garde make-up design by Janis Crespo. captured by cinematographer Chris Guzman. program production by sacred arts activist, Je' Hooper, founder of FrequencyHouse productions. sound production by Ony Irv.
[the listening heart] premiered Thursday, April 6, 2017 at Pratt Institute in Memorial Hall, featuring an opening ritual by Native artist, John Scott-Richardson, and a panel discussion with the director & cast moderated by Yazmine Nichols.
please view [the listening heart] here.
film photography by Chris Guzman.
explore storäe's performances, speaking engagements & teaching experiences: view their artist CV and educator-scholar resume.
to review their portfolio, please click here.
storäe michele as artistic stylist & costume designer
New Sanctuary: a film & ritual , directed by André Daughtry
featuring Ricarrdo Valentine and Orlando Hunter of Brother(hood) Dance!
premiered at Judson Memorial Church, NY, NY, 2017.
as costume designer, storäe fashioned garments for futuristic angels made from found objects and trash to be featured in an experimental documentary film addressing the inhumane treatment of immigrants.
following Ramesh, a Guyanese immigrant, the film records his walk to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices where he was required to check-in three times per week.
storäe was deeply moved to have clothed the two angels who accompany Ramesh, adorn him with amulets, and dress the state-imposed symbol of criminalization and injury, his house-arrest anklet.
this procession took place in public, with the angels performing a public declaration of his humanity. it was groundbreaking to witness Ramesh walk in profound confidence in the busy streets of downtown NYC, and to watch crowds of people make room for him in a country where he struggled to find such space.
storäe michele as co-editor & co-producer.
Humanitas: A Conscious Coloring of Kindness, a film by Jé Exodus Hooper
premiered at the New York Ethical Cultural Society Lincoln Center, NY, NY, 2019.
Felix Adler (Ritchie Szoke), the founder and philosopher of the Ethical Culture Movement, and W.E.B. DuBois (Joe Tolbert), the author of “the Souls of Black Folk” and activist-scholar, are re-imagined in this histo-contemporary retrospective of July 1900.
we journey with Adler and DuBois through a series of poetic prose, soulful music and choreo-movements, as they stir in one another justice through a new lens of nonreligious ethics, African-based spirituality, and civil philosophy.
cover photo with Jé Exodus Hooper.
